The final act on America's Got Talent tonight. Great singers with a very moving story.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Policies that were wrong under George W. Bush are no less wrong because Barack Obama is in the White House.

[It is] distressing is the curtain of secrecy the Obama administration has kept drawn over shameful abuses that should be brought into the light of day. . . . The Obama administration is also continuing the Bush administration’s abuse of the state-secrets privilege. . . . The Bush and Obama view of the state-secrets privilege effectively bars any real examination of such egregious mistakes.

The new president’s excessively cautious approach to the national security and civil liberties outrages of the Bush administration are unacceptable, and the organizations and individuals committed to fairness, justice and the rule of law — the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and many others — should intensify their efforts to get the new administration to do the right thing.

(Emphasis supplied.) To be fair, Herbert criticizes some Obama policies that I actually agree with. But if you disagree with these and others, take Herbert's advice to heart -- "intensify your efforts to get [Obama] to do the right thing."

Speaking for me only

I have been quite critical of President Obama, but I listened to much of his press conference today and I liked his performance very much (Partial transcript here.) Of what I heard, there was almost nothing he said nor in the way he said it that I can find fault with. I've always said that what President Obama has said is almost exactly in line with my own views.

More . . .

Dick Cheney and Kevin Kadamus both understood that safe hunters never shoot until they can see and identify their targets. Cheney nonetheless shot his friend, Harry Whittington, who soon proclaimed that the shooting was accidental and, upon his discharge from the hospital, expressed his sorrow "for everything Vice President Cheney and his family have had to deal with." No criminal charges were filed against Cheney. Kadamus shot his 17 year old son, Jacob, who died. That shooting was clearly accidental, but Kadamus has been charged with manslaughter. Why?

The game warden who arrived in time to watch Jacob die in his father's arms insists that hunters do not shoot other hunters by accident.

[more ...]

Riffing off of Ed Kilgore, Digby writes:

[I]f Obama still wants to emulate the great "game changer" himself, Ronnie Reagan, that is exactly what he would do. Reagan used his personal popularity to get rank and file Democrats to support his policies. And he rhetorically always framed his policies as the common sense policies of the everyman out in the country, and then they backed it up with polling that showed that the people trusted him.

Obama can pass health care with Democrats and then legitimately call it bipartisan by citing public support. But he has to not care that David Broder and David Brooks have a hissy fit over it. They do not speak for Americans; they don't even speak for Republicans on this one. This is what the bully pulpit is all about. He can take his case directly to the people and if he backs a real plan, with real teeth, he can get it passed, I don't have any doubts. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Let me note that Reagan learned the trick from FDR. I repeat my refrain, if real health care reform does not happen, it will be because President Barack Obama failed, not Ben Nelson or Max Baucus. That is how history will remember it and how the voters will think about it in 2012. Maybe that will incentivize Rahmbo.

Speaking for me only

Bernie Madoff is scheduled to be sentenced June 29. His lawyers are requesting a sentence of less than life in prison for the 71 year old financier. They request 12 years, or a 15 to 20 year sentence. They say he has a life expectancy of about 13 years.

You can read his lawyers' letter here (pdf.) In the letter, they attach life expectancy information and data on the sentences in other fraud cases.

The Government has filed 140 pages of e-mails and letters from victims.

Ed McMahon, best known for being Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show, has died at 86. He suffered from bone cancer and had been ill many months.

With his broad, genial, regular-guy features, Mr. McMahon had the face of someone you would buy a used car from. Indeed, for decades he was one of television’s most ubiquitous pitchmen, selling everything from boats to beer.

But it was in the role of the faithful Tonto to Carson’s wry Lone Ranger that Mr. McMahon made his sideman’s mark.

On his Tonight Show gig:

“I laugh for an hour and then go home,” Mr. McMahon once said. “I’ve got the world’s greatest job.”

R.I.P. Mr. McMahon.

The Boston Globe has this interesting excerpt from the book The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide by Dick Lehr. The book tells the story of Mike Cox, an undercover police officer who was mistakenly beaten by fellow officers, only to endure harassment (and worse) as he waited for the police department to acknowledge and investigate the officers' mistake.

On Saturday, June 27, consider participating in a Freedom March. The goal is to bring attention to wrongful convictions and to the possibility of executing the innocent. (Consider, for instance, the story of William Jackson “Jack” Marion, the unfortunate victim of "the first, last and only legal hanging in Beatrice," his punishment for murdering Jack Cameron, who turned up alive four years after the hanging.)

New York City and Pittsburgh are among the participating cities. March organizers hope that marchers will participate in every state capitol, making the Freedom March a nationwide event.

I'm watching The Bachelorette, Weeds and Nurse Jackie. I have a recap of The Bachelorette with predictions and spoilers over at PopLeft.

What are you watching tonight? And if the answer is nothing, what are you doing instead and what else is on your mind?

A federal jury today awarded Juan Johnson $21.1 million in damages. Johnson spent 11 years in prison for a crime of which he was later acquitted.

Johnson and his brother, Henry, were convicted in 1991 of beating a man to death and sentenced to 30 years in prison. The two spent 11 and a half years in prison before the Illinois Appellate Court reversed the convictions in 2002 based on new evidence that showed the detective had coerced witnesses to implicate the brothers.

"He ruined my life," Johnson said Monday. "I didn't expect to survive. I had given up hope."

Johnson was acquitted at a retrial. [More...]

Singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty today to a felony and was sentenced to five years probation with 180 hours of community service for the assault on his then girlfriend, singer Rhianna.

As part of the plea deal, Brown was also ordered to attend 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling and surrender any fire arms within 24 hours. Brown must also submit a DNA sample.

His probation will be no walk in the park. And the felony will stay with him. Rhianna's lawyer says she is satisfied with the plea deal.